by Linda Turner
“And I’ll ask around at the different booths and see if anyone showed an undue interest in you tonight and where you’re staying,” Nick added. “Oh, and give me your cell phone number and I’ll see if we can trace the call the jackass made to you. It’s a long shot, but I’m not ruling anything out.”
He jotted it down when she rattled it off, wishing he could be more encouraging. But lying to her wouldn’t keep her or her daughter safe, and she had to know what she was facing. “I don’t have to tell you that you’re in a hell of a lot more danger now than you were last week. Don’t trust anybody you don’t already know. That means fans, caterers, flower delivery people, the cleaning crew—anybody you don’t recognize instantly. Because it would be just like this bastard to infiltrate the set by pretending to be some kind of worker or something. He thinks you’re his, and he’s going to do whatever he has to to get close to you.”
Angel promised to be careful—she wouldn’t step out of the house or her trailer on the set without first checking to make sure she recognized her security guards—but as she and Joe drove back to the ranch in Janey’s car, it wasn’t herself she was worried about.
How dare you kiss that dirtbag in front of the whole town…. You’re going to pay for this!
The harsh words, screamed at her in a voice that even now made her wince, echoed over and over again in her head. And all she could think of was Emma. What better way to punish her than to go after her daughter? It was what he’d promised to do all along, and tonight, she’d given him a reason to carry through on his threat. God, how could she have been so stupid?
“She’s all right,” Joe said quietly, reading her mind as security waved him through the entrance to the ranch. “Laura and the guards aren’t going to let anything happen to her.”
“I know,” she said, “but he’s going to do something awful, I can feel it in my bones, and it’s all my fault.”
His eyes on the road ahead, Joe shot her a sharp look. “How do you figure that?”
“I knew that there was always a possibility that he could be somewhere nearby, watching me. I shouldn’t have done anything to push him over the edge.”
“Are you saying you shouldn’t have kissed me?”
She should have said yes. It would have been the wise thing to do. She was starting to feel too much for him and he couldn’t let go of the past. In spite of that, however, she knew that if she could have turned the clock back and relived that ride on the Ferris wheel all over again, she would have done things exactly the same.
“No,” she said softly. “I just wish that it hadn’t resulted in this.”
Joe hadn’t realized just how important her answer was to him until then. He wanted to tell her that he didn’t regret it, either, but he couldn’t find the words. Then the house came into view and the moment was lost.
Not surprisingly, the compound was lit up with lights, and several of his ranch hands’ pickups were parked out front. Once Laura had notified the guards that Angel’s stalker was at the festival, security would have notified his men and they’d have come running. They’d stay as long as they had to to make sure Emma was safe.
As he pulled up before the house, Buster shot out from the barn with a happy bark of recognition, and two of his ranch hands as well as the security guards came from different parts of the grounds to check out the new arrival. Angel, heeding Nick’s warning, waited until she was sure she recognized everyone before she unlocked the passenger door and pushed it open. A split second later, she was running up the steps to the porch, where Laura was waiting for her at the front door.
“She’s all right,” the older woman told her quickly. “She’s sound asleep in her bed and doesn’t have a clue that anything’s wrong. I haven’t left her side since Joe called from the festival.”
Relieved, Angel still had to see for herself that Emma was okay. Hurrying up the stairs, she quietly let herself into her bedroom and approached the bed on soundless feet. Tears flooded her eyes at the sight of Emma sprawled on her tummy with Miss Annabelle, her favorite doll, cuddled close. Lord, she was precious! And so little. If anything happened to her—
Angel stiffened at the thought. No, she silently told herself. She wasn’t going there; she wouldn’t even consider the possibility. Nothing was going to happen to her baby because she was going to do whatever she had to to keep her safe. Even if that meant sending her away to a place her stalker would never think to look for her.
Her mind made up, she softly kissed her good night, then marched downstairs to Joe’s office to make a private call. She didn’t need to call information—she knew the number by heart—and quickly punched it in. It was late and he would be asleep, but this wasn’t something that could be put off.
“H’llo?”
His voice was gruff with sleep, and not surprisingly, he was less than pleased at being woke up, but Angel didn’t apologize. “Dad, this is Angel. I need your help—”
That was as far as she got before he hung up on her. Once, that would have intimidated her and she wouldn’t have bothered to call back, but not this time. Not when her daughter was in danger.
Her jaw set, she quickly redialed the number and wasn’t surprised when she got the answering machine. “You have a three-year-old granddaughter who’s being threatened by a stalker,” she said curtly. “She needs a place to stay until he’s caught, and I know she’ll be safe with you. Please don’t take your hostility with me out on her. She doesn’t deserve that.” Reciting Joe’s phone number, she said, “I’ll be waiting for your call.”
Hanging up, she sat back in Joe’s chair and stared at the phone, willing it to ring. Her only response, however, was silence, and it broke her heart.
Chapter 9
Standing in the open doorway to his study, blatantly eavesdropping, Joe watched Angel’s shoulders sag in defeat and wished he could give her old man a piece of his mind. He didn’t know what had caused the rift between the two of them, but a child’s life was in danger, dammit! Nothing else mattered. If James Wiley was any kind of man at all, he would put his feelings aside for now and do what he had to to assure his granddaughter’s safety.
But the phone remained coldly, obstinately silent.
Why didn’t the old goat just stab her in the heart and be done with it? Joe thought furiously. She was hurting, fighting tears, and it was all he could do not to go to her. But her pain was personal, and she was entitled to her privacy.
Stepping back, he started to turn and leave her alone, but he’d waited too long. She glanced up and saw him, and with a quick apology, rose to her feet. “I’m sorry,” she said huskily, looking anywhere but at him as she swiped at her wet cheeks. “I had to make a call, but I’m finished. I’ll get out of your way—”
“I’m in no hurry. I was just going to call Nick.”
“Why?” she asked in alarm. “Did something happen here while we were gone?”
“Buster hasn’t barked all evening,” he assured her. “How about Emma? How is she?”
“Out like a light.” A weak smile curled the corners of her mouth. “I know Laura would have called if there’d been a problem, but I had to see for myself that she was okay.”
“That’s perfectly understandable. After everything that happened tonight, you had a right to be worried about her.” His brown eyes swept over her, noting her still-pale face and the pain clouding her blue eyes. “And what about you? How are you doing?”
He half expected her to lie and claim she was just fine now that she was sure Emma was safe, but she couldn’t quite manage the words. Tears spilled over her lashes, and with a muttered curse, she once again brushed them away. “I’ve been better,” she said thickly. “I guess you heard, huh?”
“You calling your father? Yeah. I’m sorry if I intruded. I didn’t realize you were in here until it was too late.”
She shrugged off his apology with a wave of her hand. “It’s okay. I was the one who made the mistake of calling in the first place. I actually thought my father mi
ght care that his granddaughter was in danger. Looks like I was wrong.”
“He still could call,” Joe said. “Give him some time.”
Angel would have loved to, but she knew her father too well. Regretfully, she shook her head. “It won’t do any good. Once he makes his mind up about something, he doesn’t change it. And he decided a long time ago that he wanted nothing more to do with me. I should have known better than to think he might have a change of heart just because I have a daughter who needs his help.”
She hadn’t planned to unload on him—she didn’t normally speak about her past to anyone. But it had been a roller coaster of an evening, and if she didn’t talk to someone, her emotions were going to tear her apart.
Sinking back into the chair behind Joe’s back, she stared blindly at the phone that remained hurtfully silent. “He was always a stern man,” she said half to herself. “As stubborn as a brick wall. It was his way or no way, black or white, with no gray in between. You toed the line according to his rules, or you got out. I got out the day I graduated from high school.”
“That’s awfully young to go out on your own,” Joe said with a frown as he propped a shoulder against the door jamb. “That couldn’t have been easy.”
“It wasn’t, but I couldn’t stay there any longer. For as long as I could remember, I wanted to go to Hollywood and act. And he hated that. He couldn’t believe I would choose the decadent life-style of L.A. over the decent, God-fearing one in which I was raised. He wanted me to go to college and become a teacher like my mother.”
“And what did your mother have to say about that?”
“She died when I was eight,” she replied. “My father’s hated the world ever since.”
And that was what hurt the most. She’d lost her mother and the loving father of her childhood all in the same day. Life hadn’t been the same since.
Her eyes stark with pain, she could do nothing to stop the tears that spilled over her lashes. “He never forgave me for leaving. And I was stupid enough to think he would. All I had to do was give him some time. Then I got the role in Heart’s Desire. It was my first big break, and I was so excited. I didn’t even think. I picked up the phone and called him. He hung up on me.
“And you know the crazy thing about all of this?” she laughed without humor. “I understood. He’d lost my mother, and he couldn’t stand the thought of losing anyone else that he loved. So he tried to control me and ended up doing the one thing he feared the most. He drove me away. It’s not me he can’t forgive for that, but himself.”
“Yet you thought he would take Emma.”
Swallowing the lump in her throat, she nodded. “It’s crazy, isn’t it? I couldn’t wait to get away from him, but now I want him to take my daughter. And that’s something else he probably won’t forgive me for. Getting pregnant and having a baby out of wedlock,” she explained when he lifted a brow. “And not telling him until now that he has a granddaughter.”
She saw his shock and could make no excuses for her behavior. “I thought it was for the best at the time.”
Because she hadn’t wanted to hear I told you so’s or condemnations of her life-style. She had a baby that she adored, and the how, when, and whys of her conception hadn’t mattered. As far as Angel was concerned, she was a blessing, and she hadn’t been able to bear the thought of her father finding fault with that. So she’d kept Emma to herself.
Now she had to doubt the wisdom of that. If she’d gone home for a visit after Emma was born and insisted her father get to know his granddaughter, he wouldn’t have been able to harden his heart against her baby charm. He’d have fallen in love with her just like Angel had, and the second he’d heard she was in trouble, he’d have come running to her rescue.
Hindsight was twenty-twenty, however, and did nothing to change the present. The phone didn’t ring. Pain lancing her heart, Angel reluctantly accepted the fact that it wasn’t likely to. Not tonight or tomorrow, maybe not ever. And there was nothing she could do about it. If it was more important to her father to cling to his hurt and anger than let her back into his life, he couldn’t love her as much as she thought he did.
Resigned, she forced a stiff smile and pushed to her feet. “I guess there’s no use beating a dead horse, is there? He’s not going to call, so I might as well go to bed.”
She looked so forlorn that he couldn’t resist the urge to help her. “I have a cousin who owns a day care in Omaha. If you like, I can call her first thing in the morning and see if she’d be willing to take Emma until this all blows over. She’s a good woman, and her husband’s a police officer. They’d take good care of her.”
It wasn’t the ideal solution—it would be best for Emma to be with family—but it was an option if her father didn’t come through for her. “You don’t have to decide tonight,” he said when she hesitated. “Just think about it.”
“I will,” she said softly. “Thank you.”
Murmuring a husky good-night, she eased past him and went upstairs to bed. Standing at the foot of the stairs, he watched her go up and knew there was no point in going up himself. He wouldn’t sleep. Not when she and Emma were still in danger.
Grabbing a rifle from the locked gun cabinet in his office, he stepped outside and dead-bolted the front door behind him. With his ranch hands and the security guards patrolling the area, Joe knew the house was secure. Still, he had to check for himself. Whistling for Buster, who was snoozing on the front porch, he strode out into the night.
When the studio limo arrived at the house the next morning to drive Angel to the set, she ached to take Emma with her. She knew Laura and the men watching the house would do their best to keep her safe, but they weren’t her mother. No one could watch over her like she could.
“She’ll be all right,” Laura promised her as she hesitated in the hallway. “We’ll stay inside. And with four guards and Buster on duty at all times, no one’s going to get anywhere near the house without someone seeing them. Especially in broad daylight.”
Angel knew she was right, but that didn’t make it any easier to leave her. It had been hard enough before, when she’d thought her stalker was still in L.A. But now that she knew he was somewhere in the vicinity, it was impossible. She felt like she was abandoning her when she was in danger, and it tore her apart. If something happened while she was gone, she’d never forgive herself.
“I want you to call the set every thirty minutes and let me know she’s okay,” she told the older woman as her gaze lingered on Emma and the sweet innocence of her expression as she played with her bunny angel and other stuffed animals in the living room. “And if anything unusual happens, don’t hang around to check it out. Grab one of the security guards and get Emma out of here immediately. I mean it, Laura. Don’t take any chances.”
“I won’t,” she said solemnly. “You have my word, Angel. I’ll guard her like she was my own.”
Suddenly realizing how she sounded, as if she didn’t have any faith in Laura’s ability to take care of her, Angel hugged her, blinking back tears. “I’m sorry to be so paranoid. Of course you will. It isn’t that I don’t trust you. It’s that…monster out there I don’t trust. I don’t know what he’s going to do next.”
“Don’t let him rattle you,” Laura replied. “Joe and his men and the studio security guards have done everything they can to keep you both safe. You’re going to be fine.”
Angel wanted desperately to believe her, but her stomach was knotted with fear as she kissed Emma on the top of the head, then approached the front door. Remembering Nick’s advice, she glanced out the sidelight next to the front door and sighed in relief when she recognized her driver, William, talking to Joe as he waited patiently for her beside the limo. Only then did she open the door.
Straightening, William greeted her with a somber nod. “Good morning, Ms. Wiley. I heard you had a rough evening last night.”
“It was a nightmare,” she admitted. “I can’t remember the last time I was so scar
ed.”
“I’m pretty sure the jerk didn’t follow us home,” Joe told her. “Nothing moved all night.”
He sounded so confident that she assumed his men had already given him a thorough report. Then she noticed how tired he looked. “You were up all night?” she asked, surprised.
“I couldn’t ask my hands to do something I wasn’t willing to do,” he said with a shrug, and deliberately changed the subject. “William is armed and more than capable of protecting you, but one of my men is going to follow you to the set just to make sure you don’t run into any trouble.”
He motioned to Tommy, one of the older ranch hands, to ride shotgun, but Angel couldn’t let him do that. Every time she’d closed her eyes last night and tried to sleep, she’d been haunted with images of her stalker touching her, stroking her, breathing down her neck. Just the thought of him getting that close to her again scared the hell out of her. But Emma was the one he saw as a threat, the one he wanted to get rid of, the one he wanted to hurt.
“No,” she said quickly. “I’d rather Tommy stay here with the others and protect Emma.”
She might as well have saved her breath. Joe had that stubborn set to his jaw, the one that warned her nothing short of an earthquake was going to move him. “Emma’s well protected,” he retorted. “You’re the one who’s not. Tommy’s going with you.” The matter settled as far as he was concerned, he opened the rear door of the limo for her as Tommy slid into his truck and started it up. Whether she liked it or not, she had an escort. Frowning at him, she slipped into the back seat of the limo.
Fifteen minutes later, William arrived at the set and braked to a stop at a security entrance that hadn’t been there yesterday. Tommy waved and turned around to return to Joe’s house, but Angel never noticed. Because lined up in front of the new security entrance was most of the cast and crew.
Stunned, Angel blinked. “Good Lord, what’s going on?”
“The sheriff talked to Mr. Sutton and Mr. Douglas last night and told them about your trouble,” William said as he opened her door for her and helped her out of the car. “They closed the set and shut down filming for the morning so that everyone can have picture IDs made. Starting at noon today, no one gets on the set without their ID, not even the stars.”